A Tiny Flicker
by Scribbles-by-Kate
Summary: My take on what happens when everyone comes back from the AU in the season four finale. Belle wants to save Rumple from his fate, but is anyone willing to help her? RumBelle. Spoilers for "Operation Mongoose".


So, I'm very much looking forward to the finale and I thought I'd see if I could predict what might happen based on what we know of the finale. I know some of this isn't going to happen, but some of it might :)

 _Once Upon a Time_ belongs to Adam, Eddy, and ABC: this is just my take on the RumBelle reunion.

 **A Tiny Flicker**

Belle blinked. She was standing outside the pawn shop, but she hadn't been here a moment ago. She'd been somewhere else, living an entirely different life, a life where she was happily married to Rumple, who was a knight, a hero, an ogre slayer. The Author had written a new story and he'd centred it around Rumple. He'd had a difficult choice to make… _Oh_ , she thought, shuddering. He'd had to choose: that happy life, where he was a hero and they were happy, or this, where he was the Dark One, where he was _dying_. To save her, to save _everyone_ , he'd chosen…this. He'd doomed himself for all of them, again.

The key was still in her hand. She'd tried to use it to get into the shop, but he'd changed the locks. She tried again now, but the key wouldn't turn.

'Rumple!' she cried, hitting her fist off the wood of the door. 'Rumple, please!'

There was no answer. She rattled the handle and pushed, trying to force it open, but it wouldn't budge. She needed help.

'I'm coming back, Rumple,' she called through the door: 'I'll be right back!'

She turned and hurried off, deciding in mid stride to go to the diner. Surely someone there could help her.

She was in luck: Emma, her parents, Killian, Regina, Henry, and Robin were all there, along with the Blue Fairy.

'Please,' she called, rushing through the door, 'I need your help.'

'Belle?' Emma called, standing to face her: 'what is it?'

'It's Rumple,' Belle said, moving closer, 'he's locked himself in the shop and my key won't work. I need to get in there. Please, will you help me?'

'You do realise he's the reason we were all stuck in that story?' Killian asked.

'The _Author_ wrote the story,' Henry said, sounding annoyed.

' _For_ Gold!' Killian retorted.

'He saved me from an ogre,' Henry persisted, 'and he's the one who ended the story and brought us all back. He's a hero.'

Belle could feel tension and guessed this had been a subject of heated debate before she came in.

Henry came and stood beside her.

'He saved us,' he said, looking around at his family, all of whom looked uncomfortable. 'If the Author's book shows us anything it's that anyone can be a hero or a villain. We owe him, and he's my grandfather.'

'Henry, he was working with Zelena,' Regina said: 'he was going to call her and tell her to kill Robin.'

' _That's_ why you took my heart?' Belle asked indignantly.

Henry sucked in a stunned breath and Robin stared at Regina, who looked away uncomfortably.

'Regina, is this true?' he demanded.

' _That_ was the leverage you lost?' Emma asked, shocked.

'I had to!' Regina protested: 'he would have told Zelena to kill you.' She stared pleadingly at Robin, but he moved away a little, removing his arm from around her shoulder.

'Did he call her?' Belle asked her.

'What?' Regina asked, glaring at her as if this was all her fault and she hadn't committed any heinous act in stealing her heart. Probably to Regina, she hadn't: the ends justified the means and she deemed Robin more important.

'He got my heart back yesterday afternoon,' Belle told her: 'did Zelena know you were coming? I'm guessing that since Robin is still alive, the answer is no, so what does that tell you? Zelena killed his son, she enslaved him for nearly a year: do you really think he would work with her?'

'How should I know?' Regina asked irritably.

'Did you even think to ask?'

Tears trickled down Belle's cheeks now as she shook her head. 'I didn't even ask,' she said softly, her breath hitching.

She looked around helplessly. 'Look, I know he's done some horrible things, but he-he was hurt, and grieving, and his heart… He showed it to me: there's only a little bit of red left, and when that's gone, Rumple will die.'

'I say good riddance,' Killian said: 'one less monster to worry about.'

'He's no monster, Hook,' Belle cried, exasperated: 'you are!' She looked around once more, but not one of them would meet her gaze. Robin, she could understand: he'd just had a bombshell dropped on him, but the others…

'Mother Superior?' she asked, looking desperately at the Blue Fairy, but the fairy didn't respond.

'Mom?' Henry asked expectantly, looking at Regina, but she said nothing.

'I don't understand,' he said sadly.

'Henry, he hurt a lot of people,' Emma said, moving towards him: 'maybe this is best.'

'He saved me!' Henry protested, backing away from her. 'He ended the Author's story so we could all have our happy endings!'

'Henry, it's alright,' Belle said, not wanting him upset: 'if they won't help, I'll find a way to help him myself.' And she turned to leave.

'Wait, my dear,' a man's voice called, and Belle turned to see an old man she'd never seen before coming towards her. 'My name is Yensid,' he said, obviously seeing her confusion: 'I am the Sorcerer's Apprentice.'

He had kind eyes, Belle thought, and she didn't feel the hostility from him that she felt from the others.

'You're the man who was trapped in the hat,' she said. He nodded. 'But how did you get free?'

'With young Henry's help,' he said, patting the boy on the shoulder.

'I'm glad,' she said, smiling at Henry: 'I'm sorry you were trapped.'

'It's no matter now: we have a more pressing situation to take care of, the matter of your husband's heart.'

'Can you help him?' she asked hopefully.

'The only one who can help him now is you, my dear.'

'How?'

'The last flicker of red in his heart is his love for you: you must remind him of the love you share.'

'Why are you helping him?' Killian demanded: 'he was going to use that hat to become all powerful, or have you forgotten?'

'No, I have not forgotten,' Yensid replied, 'and nor have I forgotten compassion, as you all seem to have. Rumplestiltskin made the difficult choice to return you all to your real lives, despite what it meant for him. Without help, what makes him human, what makes him Rumplestiltskin, will die. You should all hope that that does not happen, because if it does, if the last of the red leaves his heart, all that will remain is the Dark One, and the Dark One feels no love, no compassion, no humanity. The Dark One is the true monster, and you do not want to face it even in your worst nightmares.'

'Wait: you're saying that Gold and the Dark One are separate?' Mary Margaret asked.

'Rumplestiltskin was not born the Dark One. He unknowingly took on a curse from the previous bearer. He believed he could do good with the power, but he was misled, and he's borne the terrible burden for over three hundred years, longer than anyone before him. To take on this curse means to lay down your soul, and the longer he's lived with the burden, the more of his humanity he's lost to it. It's remarkable that he was able to fall in love at all.' Yensid looked to Belle and smiled a little.

'So, if Gold's heart goes completely black, you're saying the Dark One will be unleashed, no humanity to hold it back?' Emma asked, her eyes widening.

'Precisely.'

'So, he's been fighting a curse all this time?' she asked, and she now seemed to understand the enormity of what was happening, and that perhaps it was _not_ for the best to let Rumple die.

'Yes. It's not unlike what happened to your friend Lilith,' he said.

Emma's shoulders sagged. 'I thought he was just being a selfish bastard: I didn't realise it wasn't his fault.'

'Are you saying that Gold can't do the right thing because he's cursed?' Regina asked.

'I'm saying that even when he tries to do right, it goes wrong. The curse will not allow him to have happiness for long. As I said, it's remarkable that he fell in love at all.' He looked at Belle again. 'You must be an extraordinary woman to bring out his humanity again, and to be able to see past the darkness to the man beneath.'

She shook her head. 'I'm not so extraordinary,' she demurred. 'I gave up on him. I called him a beast. I sent him away when he needed me most.' Tears trickled down her cheeks again. 'This is my fault!'

The Apprentice shook his head. 'It's his curse. It took his pure love for you and tainted it. It's what drove you apart. Since his son's death and his enslavement by the Wicked Witch, the curse has gained a stronger hold on him. He can't fight it like he could before. He's been losing his ability to love more rapidly, so you weren't wrong when you called him a beast: that's what the curse is. It's not too late to save the man, though. As long as his love for you still exists, there's hope.'

Belle nodded, wiping her tears. 'I have to go to him.'

'Do you have a key to his shop?'

'Yes, but he changed the locks: it doesn't work.'

'May I see the key?'

'Of course.' She held it out and he waved a wand over it. It glowed a little.

'There: it will work now.'

'Thank you,' Belle said gratefully.

She turned, ignoring everyone else, and smiled at Henry.

'Your father would be so proud of you,' she told him softly.

He blinked and hugged her tight. She hugged him back.

'Go save Grandpa,' he said.

Belle smiled, squeezed his arm, and then rushed out of the diner.

She fumbled with the key, but she managed to get it into the lock and it turned this time: the Apprentice's magic had worked.

She stepped into the shop and found it eerily still and cold, but it wasn't unoccupied.

'Rumple!' she cried, seeing her husband sitting on the floor, leaning back against the counter. His eyes were closed.

'Oh, Rumple,' she breathed, rushing to him and crouching on the floor beside him. 'Rumple, talk to me.'

She placed her ear to his chest and heard a heartbeat, but she supposed his heart would still beat even if…

'Rumplestiltskin,' she breathed, her voice trembling.

His eyelids flickered and she caught her breath.

'Rumple?' she asked: 'Rumple, can you hear me?'

His eyes opened and she got such a shock. Gone were the eyes full of warmth and love: they'd been replaced by deep black pools, devoid of emotion.

She was too late, she realised: the transformation was complete. A monster wore her husband's face and there was no telling what hell would be unleashed on them now. Tears ran down her cheeks and her body shook with her sobs.

'Oh, Rumple, I'm sorry,' she sobbed: 'I'm so, so sorry.' She took his hand and held it to her cheek before pressing kisses mixed with salty tears to the back of it.

'This is my fault,' she sobbed, hiccuping. 'I sent you away when I should have tried to understand. I love you. I love you! I don't want to lose you, Rumple, please!'

She looked into the black eyes, pleading, for what, she didn't know. Maybe a second chance, maybe forgiveness, and then she saw it: a tiny flicker of warmth in the black depths. Maybe she wasn't too late after all!

'Rumple?' she asked urgently, dropping his hand and cupping his face in her hands. 'Rumple, can you hear me?'

She shifted closer, kneeling between his legs, sitting back on her heels.

'Rumple? Rumple, I know you're still in there, my love. I know you haven't given in. Please, you have to fight, Rumple. Don't let go: don't let the Dark One win. There's still hope! I'm here: I'm here and I'm never going to let you go again. Please, come back to me. You just have to believe, please!'

He didn't speak, but the tiny flicker was still there, so she knew he was holding on, even if just barely. The Apprentice had told her to remind him of their love…

'I know!' she cried. 'Just give me a moment, alright?' And she scrambled to her feet and rushed into the back room.

She found it exactly where she'd left it: on its saucer in the cupboard. She'd looked at it after she banished him and sobbed her heart out over it. She'd looked at it and cried so many times since that night. All she'd had left was an empty heart and a chipped cup…

'Rumple,' she called, rushing back out and kneeling down again in the same spot. 'Rumple, I found our cup,' she said softly.

She took his hand and curled it around the cup, placing hers over his so that the cup wouldn't fall.

'Do you remember? You made a joke about me skinning children for their pelts and I was so startled, I let the cup slip from my hands. I'd meant to make you a cup of tea, but instead I ended up breaking your cup. I thought you'd be so angry and I was so afraid of upsetting you, but you weren't angry at all… I think that was the moment I knew you weren't the beast you pretended to be.

'You always insisted on having your tea in this cup,' she said, smiling. 'I couldn't figure out why for the longest time. I didn't understand until we were here, in this land. You said the night we were reunited that this cup was the only thing in the shop that you truly cherished. When I asked you why later, you said it was because when you couldn't hold me, you could hold this: something I'd touched, something I'd cared about. You said the cup was me, but it was also your heart: flawed, imperfect, but mine all the same. You kept this cup to remember me, and I kept it to remember you. This cup is our love: fragile, chipped, but not broken.

'Rumple, I don't want this cup to be all there is. I want us to be together. The Author got one thing right, you know, in that story of his: my happy ending. I know you asked him to write me one and that you didn't think it was with you, but it was always with you. You have no idea how many times I cried for you, how many nights I lay awake wishing for you. It hurt so much and I didn't want to feel it any more, because I loved you so much and I thought you didn't love me. That's why I tried to move on. I tried to have something easy, something uncomplicated, but then you gave me back my heart and gave me my freedom, again, and I knew I could never be happy without you. No one could ever compare to you, my darling Rumple.

'Please, I know I was wrong about so many things, but I'm starting to understand. I want you back. I love you, Rumple.'

He blinked, and it was hard to tell because of the blackness, but she thought his eyes focused on her. The flicker was still there.

'Belle?' he questioned. He was barely able to talk.

'Rumple,' she whispered, smiling tearfully.

'You came back?'

'Of course I came back,' she told him, stroking his cheek.

He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. 'I heard your voice. I thought I was dreaming.'

'No,' she said softly. 'Did you hear everything I said?'

He nodded. 'You still love me?' he asked, and she could hear the hope.

'I never stopped loving you,' she told him. 'It was because I love you so much that my heart hurt so much. I wanted it to go away: I…' Her voice trembled. 'I didn't want the pain. I tried to find something simple, but that's not me. I haven't been myself without you.'

'I thought Will made you happy.'

She shook her head. 'There's no happiness without you. You put my heart back last night, but you didn't, not really, because when you walked away, I gave it right back to you. Will was never anything serious. He's not you.'

He smiled and looked down at the cup in his hand.

'You kept it: our chipped cup.'

'Of course I did,' she said. 'I also kept this.' And she reached into her pocket and took out her wedding ring.

They looked at each other and she saw his eyes water. Hers did too.

'I kept it close,' she said. 'I took it off because I thought you gave it to me on a lie, but I couldn't let it go because part of me hoped I was wrong: that you did love me. Now I know I was right to keep it. I was wrong about so many things,' she said, rolling her eyes at herself: 'the gauntlet, saying you were a beast. How could I have been so stupid?'

'I didn't give you any reason to believe in me,' he said, 'and you were right about me being a beast: that's what I'm becoming.'

'No,' she said, placing her hands on his cheeks again, her ring back in her pocket until he could put it back where it belonged for her, 'you're not: I won't let you go.'

'I'm afraid it's too late, my sweet Belle,' he said. 'Now, please, you must go: I don't want you to be here when…'

'Rumple, no,' she begged: 'there must be a way.' Tears spilled down her cheeks again.

'I wish there were. Oh, if I could do it all again, I'd choose you. I'd choose you now if fate would be so kind as to let me.'

'Rumple,' she sobbed, 'please, don't leave me.'

'I don't want to, my love, I don't, but at least I got to see you one last time.'

She shifted closer. 'Rumple, this isn't the last time: I won't lose you again, I won't!'

'I'm sorry: I can't fight it any more. I don't want you to see it, please, you have to run. Tell them to put barriers up around the shop. The Dark One must be contained.'

'I won't leave you,' she sobbed.

'Please, Belle. Be the hero I know you are.'

'I don't want to be a hero,' she said: 'trying to be a hero caused me nothing but pain. Trying to be a hero is what made me lose you. I won't do it.'

'You have to,' he said, 'because the Dark One will destroy everyone. There's time to stop it. Warn everyone. Get Emma and Regina to pool their magic. Together, they're strong enough to create a prison, and I'm sure the Blue Fairy can help. Please, it's the right thing to do, and you always try to do the right thing: it's part of who you are and why I love you.'

'I love you too,' she told him, sobbing harder. 'I love you now more than ever. Even with the darkness, you still did noble and heroic things. You've been fighting that curse for so long and you still have goodness in you, more than anyone I know. You're a hero, Rumple: you're more a hero than I'll ever be.'

He smiled, reaching up to stroke her cheek. She tilted her head into his hand.

'How could I have chosen power over you?' he wondered, shaking his head at himself. He sighed. 'I want you to know, while it still matters, I choose you.'

She smiled through her tears. 'And I choose you, Rumplestiltskin.'

She leaned close, her eyes on his lips. If she must go, she wanted one last kiss.

'Belle,' he whispered, and she knew he wanted the same.

She pressed her lips to his gently and, a second later, he kissed her back.

After a moment, he gasped, and she pulled back, alarmed.

'Rumple?' she asked, frightened.

He smiled at her. 'Kiss me again: it's working.'

She gasped as she saw the flicker that represented his soul grow larger. His eyes were returning to the soft, warm brown that she loved: his curse was breaking!

'True Love's Kiss!' she cried, and she surged against him, slanting her mouth over his and kissing him eagerly.

After a moment, he shuddered and broke away, crying out.

She saw it, then, the inky black substance flowing out of his chest.

She looked at him and he looked at her.

'Your heart,' she said.

'You saved it,' he said, smiling at her. He reached into the inside of his jacket and pulled out the object concealed there: his dagger. No, not his dagger any more: his name had been erased from the blade.

'Rumple,' she breathed. She stared at him as he turned the dagger over in his hands. She bit her lip. Did he regret giving it up?

As soon as that question came to her, he looked at her and the dagger clattered to the floor as he reached for her.

'Belle,' he whispered: 'my love.'

She kissed him, crying again, but happy tears now.

She pulled back a little and took her ring from her pocket again.

'Can we start again?' she asked.

He smiled. 'You're sure?'

'I'm sure.'

'No secrets this time,' he promised, and she smiled.

'I love you so much,' she whispered, watching him as he slid her ring back onto her finger.

'I love you too.'

The black sludge had pooled on the floor and started bubbling and hissing, drawing their attention. Then it rose up and formed a figure not unlike the wraiths Belle had read about.

The thing looked at them, or Belle thought it did, since it didn't appear to have eyes.

She scooted closer to Rumple, ready to protect him if she needed to. He wrapped an arm around her too, but the thing didn't attack. It shrieked, though, and didn't sound happy.

Belle winced at the shriek, but she continued to look up at the thing, wondering why it wasn't attacking.

'Why doesn't it attack?' she asked Rumple.

'I don't think it can,' he said, and hugged her. 'I think we're immune.'

'Inoculation by True Love's Kiss?' she asked, smiling at him.

'It's as good an explanation as any,' he agreed. 'This has never happened before. The Dark One always dies and is replaced: there's never been an ex-Dark One, but then the Dark One has never found True Love either.'

'True Love,' she said: 'it's True Love,' she repeated, smiling.

'Yeah,' he said, looking as awed as she felt.

There were things to say, things to talk about, but, right now, all that mattered was how they felt about each other.

Belle leaned in and kissed him again, and he kissed her back, and neither of them heard the door crash open or saw the monster fly off.

 **There you go. We'll see if any of that comes true tonight. I'm probably way off :) Thanks for reading anyway :)**


End file.
